


Five Photographs Daniel Jackson Took While Offworld

by Jedi Buttercup (jedibuttercup)



Series: Nickle (or a Dime) For Your Thoughts [17]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: 5 Things, Alien Planet, Gen, Photography, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-03
Updated: 2008-01-03
Packaged: 2017-10-10 08:49:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedibuttercup/pseuds/Jedi%20Buttercup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...of things that he didn't want to let slip away without notice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Photographs Daniel Jackson Took While Offworld

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KerrAvonsen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KerrAvonsen/gifts).



> Spoilers through Season 10.

**1)**

Early on in Daniel's first year at the SGC, after he'd come to terms with the fact that rescuing Sha'uri was going to take a while longer than he'd hoped and before he came to realize that "scientific discovery" was the _least_ of the goverment's priorities for the project, he used to take random photographs of extra-terrestrial vegetation.

Daniel wasn't a biologist, but then, neither was anyone else on his team, and the MALPs the SGC used to vet planets for exploration didn't see very far from the 'gate; he was concerned that something important might slip by unnoticed amid the chaos that often accompanied SG-1's missions. Something probably has, by now; Daniel's focus has long since shifted away from stockpiling images of alien foliage that no one else will ever see.

...Save one. Early on in Jack's first year in Washington, after Daniel failed to reach Atlantis yet again and before Vala's return from the Ori galaxy, Daniel dug up the aging collection and spent hours searching through them for the quintessential "trees, trees, and more trees". Then he had a copy made on five-by-seven-inch photographic paper, scrawled a note on the back, and dropped it in the mail.

"_Thought you might be missing these_."

**2)**

SG-1 has always been a first contact team. Leisurely overnight exploration missions don't fall within their purview; the only times their boots are ever the first to touch alien soil are on worlds whose populations are evident from the very first MALP contact.

Given such constraints, the opportunities for _planned_ overnight trips are few and far between. Daniel's been imprisoned, dumped into sarcophagi, and trapped among turbulent natives far more often than he's ever had occasion to roll out his sleeping bag. Still, there _has_ been the occasional break: Hammond used to save the cream of the tranquil minerals-and-ruins planets to throw SG-1's way when the press of duty grew especially rough.

On one such mission, not long after Jolinar, they'd set up camp among the standing stones left behind by a long-vanished primitive culture. Daniel had walked through the ruins for hours as the sun sank in the sky, capturing the play of light and shadow on the runes scattered throughout the curiously geometric layout; but of all the photographs he'd taken that day, it was the one he'd snapped of the camp as he'd returned just after sunset that has carried the most meaning for him in later years.

To the left of the image, Jack stands like a sentinel, silhouetted against the vivid sky as he looks down into the valley below; at the right, Teal'c sits cross-legged on the earth in front of a towering stone, eyes closed in Kelnoreem as the fading light deepens the dusk of his skin. Between them, facing Daniel across a tiny, smokeless fire, Sam frowns intently down at the screen of her laptop; her fingers are poised to strike, caught mid-motion above the keys, and a mug of coffee sits half-empty at her elbow.

No matter who may wear the badge, then, now, or ever: for Daniel, _this_ will always be SG-1.

**3)**

To Daniel's great sorrow, he was never able to procure a photograph of his Abydonian family. He had one of Sha'uri courtesy of Sam, a couple of candids taken of Kasuf and Skaara, and one of Shifu clipped from the base's security footage, but he'd never been able to sit with any of them specifically for a family portrait, and after the loss of Abydos the opportunity had been gone forever.

Perhaps for that reason, his camera seemed drawn to Sam and Jacob whenever SG-1 had the opportunity to pursue a mission alongside the Tok'ra ambassador. Once, he'd caught his friend in profile, standing in front of her father, deep in serious conversation; she'd been wearing her desert camos, Jacob Selmac's pale leather gear, and the resemblance-- and respect-- between the two Carters had been poignantly obvious.

Much later-- after Daniel's second Ascenscion, after the Replicator attack, after Jacob sacrificed himself so Selmac could work as long as possible at Dakara-- he had that image framed, and left it on her desk.

**4)**

He won't give Sam the picture of His Three Sort-of-Commanding Officers, on the other hand, no matter how often she asks for it. He snuck a digital camera along on Mitchell's 200th party, and chanced to catch Jack handing fresh glasses of bubbly to both Sam and Mitchell. Jack had seen him just before he'd pressed the button to capture; Sam and Cam were both turning to look as well, and all three were wearing the same wry, half-annoyed, half-affectionate "Daniel!" smile.

He did send a copy to Hammond, however, with the caption: "Breaking in the new one just fine."

**5)**

And then there's the footage from the [planet of the intoxicating pollen](http://archiveofourown.org/works/97823).

At the time, Daniel successfully traded away his rights to the video for a better coffee supply at the mountain, and judged it a more than even exchange. But he hadn't quite been able to resist taking a clip or two out of it before handing it over.

Cam only _thinks_ he knows the Real SG-1 from all the mission reports. One of these days, Daniel is going to blow his mind.


End file.
